Blocking

The above pictures are the Ishbel pinned out on the foam board.

1. Need more blocking pins.

2. Need to more pieces of foam board

3. Need to use the futon for blocking

The Ishbel is suppose to have straight edges and not points, but I quickly realized that I didn't have enough pins. I understand now comments on Ravelry suggesting that mistakes can be hidden by blocking. The lace portion barely looks like the pattern, but I'm not bothered. I've learned what I did wrong and I now know how to correct my mistakes.

The yarn is Knit Picks kettle-dyed Stroll/Essential. I love the colorway and the yarn is squeezably soft. Another takeaway is not to use sock yarn with nylon. It made some of SK2psso really large. Close examination will show where I messed up twice on the center stitch YO.

I soaked the finished shawl in a watered down shampoo for about two hours. Rinsed it once. Pressed out the excess water in the basin before wrapping it in a bathmat. A short session of a grape pressing dance on the bath mat and I put it on the mesh drying rack for about 30 minutes. It was damp but not wet when I put it on the foam boards. I used blocking wires to create the straight neck edge and pinned out the sides until I ran out of space and pins near the triangle point. Eventually I will get the sheep shampoo recommended by Meg Swanson.

Now it's on to the same for the Lace and Flower Stole. So watch this space for more photos later today or tomorrow.

What's on the needles:

I had a great session with a mate at work where she demonstrated how to do the k3 yo p and I finally got it. So a new Ishbel is on the needles in Knit Picks Bare Laceweight 100% Merino. My mate pearls the way I did until it was pointed out not so much that I was doing it wrong, but that in certain knitted pieces it gives a slight bias slant to the fabric which can distort guage (number of stitches and rows per inch). We also looked at videos for M1R and M1L which showed that I was doing those stitches wrong. I could not convince her to do the SSK shortcut--which I discovered by observing the position of the needles when doing the stitch only to learn later that it's a legit SSK shortcut.

It is one of the joys of knitting, acquiring new skills and applying them.

I haven't done much on the Diamonds and Chevrons since last weekend and may make this my WIP World Cup Project. For non-knitting readers. WIP=work in progress. The challenge is to pick a wip and finish it during the World Cup.

10 Shawls in 2010: Two down and 8 more to go!

Recent Films:

I rented two silent films for this weekend. Not good choices for knitting. Silent films really do require that you watch. No keeping up with the storyline by listening to the dialogue.

I did finally get into Lilies, the story of three working-class sisters in Liverpool during and after WWI. The episode about the Tallyman reminded me of Graham's stories of being visited by the child welfare and the social. The episode contained the same resentment and fear of authority that I heard in his voice.

This week: 3 Star Wars films and Gillian Armstrong's Starstruck.